Couples that beer pong together stay together—or something like that. Jenny and Manny met at a house party while in college. They didn’t talk too much that first night, but Manny had to see Jenny again. He invited her to a party the next evening, they paired up for beer pong, and let’s just say there were no more Lonely Cups for these co-eds. Ten years and many, many Red Solo Cups later, they’re walking down the aisle.
Give us the details! When? Where? How?
I was running my 7th marathon near my hometown this past spring. Training didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, but I just wanted to finish feeling strong and confident. It turned out to be a pretty hot and humid spring day; by the time I reached mile 10-11, I felt myself overheating so I decided to stop at the halfway mark and make my way back to the finish line.
Meanwhile, Manny had a plan to propose *after* I finished the race! So, I totally messed up the plan. My family was anxiously waiting for me elsewhere on the course, so I called them to let them know that I was at the finish line collecting my things. When they found me, they were concerned and kept asking if I was okay. I didn’t really know why they were so incessant at the time — Manny and I walked back to our car so that I could change and head to a brewery for some food and drinks.
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It was a gorgeous day to hang out outside, just not to run 26.2 miles. As I was collecting my things and getting ready, Manny said “Well, I had something planned for today.” And I immediately asked, “What did you have planned?” He paused, opened the center console in the car, and pulled out the ring box. I was in complete shock. We’d always known we would get married, but I didn’t expect him to surprise me like he did! We celebrated at the brewery with friends and family on a gorgeous sunny day — it was the best day!
What has been your favorite experience planning the wedding?
For me, I think my favorite part has been the process of deciding what is “us” and how we can make our day very personal to our relationship. There have been several decisions that feel natural and we haven’t agonized over them because we seem to really know what we want. 🙂
How do you stay sane under the pressures of wedding planning?
We made a master checklist of things we need to do and decisions we need to make. We had to make a lot of decisions quickly early on like the venue and caterer, but it’s slowed down a bit recently which is a relief. Each month or so, we choose 2-3 things on the list and check them off.
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What was your favorite part of using Joy for your wedding?
Using Joy is very simple, quick, and easy. We’re using Joy to communicate with our wedding guests, collect RVSPs, and share important details. We like that we’re able to customize our site so quickly, especially between sending the Save the Dates & the formal invitations.
What piece of advice would you give couples to ensure that they use Joy to its fullest potential?
Honestly, Joy is stupid simple to use. Don’t try to over-engineer your wedding guest list or how guests learn more about your wedding day. We’ve found the Joy team to be very responsive through the chat box on their site as well.
At Joy we believe that even though a wedding lasts a day, joy should last forever. What does that mean to you?
In planning a wedding, a lot of decisions start to make you feel like “why are we doing all of this just for one day of our lives?!” But we keep coming back to the fact that we can’t wait for our friends and family to all be together with us on our special day. After 9+ years together, we want those who have supported us to share in our joy — on our wedding day and for the rest of our lives.
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